The Complexities of Love
by thein273
Summary: After The Giant War, a sudden realization galvanizes Percy on a mission to rectify his plethora of unfinished promises and mistakes. Starting - and ending - with the enigma named Nico di Angelo. Includes a pseudo-epilogue with House of Hades spoilers to spare. Leo/Calypso as well as other cannon couples. Very long one-shot. Contains very few curse words; nothing graphic. Rated T.


_I do not own The Heroes of Olympus, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, nor the brief Kane Chronicles reference at the tag-end. All rights go to Rick Riordan, Disney Hyperion Books, and all respective owners. No profit if being made from this text._

_WARNING: Severe House of Hades spoilers. You are warned._

**The Complexities of Love**

Three days after the _Argo II _left The House of Hades a blip on the horizon, Percy was munching on potato chips next to Jason, watching a rerun of _Hercules. _In the chorus of "Go the Distance," Percy said absently, "So. I heard you went on a mini-quest with Nico. He tell you anything more than, 'I hang out in the Underworld a lot?'"

Jason spit his soda all over the dining table. "Percy," he growled, wiping his mouth. "Warn me next time you drop a bomb like that in my lap."

Hercules - the cool cartoon dude, not the moody godly one - finished his last note while skipping on a pegasus through the clouds. Percy's ADHD latched onto it momentarily and he said, "Like a son of Zeus would rid a pegasus." He snorted derisively before turning back to Jason, who looked a little surprised by the change in subject. "Seriously, though? Did he swear you to secrecy or keep his trap shut like he always does? The last time the kid uttered more than a sentence to me besides a lecture on Greek mythology was when he still thought Mythomagic was its own god." He laughed. "Jeez, he'd kill me if he found out I thought it, but he was sort of an adorable ten year old."

Jason looked like he wanted to curl up and die. "Uh . . . I'm not sure I should. Nico was pretty freaked out."

That when Percy's instincts switched from "let's find out more about my reclusive cousin" to "who the Hades freaked out my little brother?" After all, whenever someone scared Tyson, he reacted the same way.

Surging to his feet, he leaned close to Jason's until his furrowed eyebrow hair brushed his. In retrospect, if Annabeth or Piper had walked in, that would have been _really _hard to explain. Especially seeming, in a soda-induced state of delirium, Percy had chucked at one another and had crashed on the same couch. There should be limits to how close compatriots in war should be.

"What happened?" Percy's voice was firm, a cross between a wolf's growl and a snake's hiss. Jason balked a little before shoving him back.

"Nothing you need to know about."

Percy almost strangled him. "Yeah, I kind of do. I owe Nico a lot, Jason."

"You do an awesome job of showing it." The sarcasm and bitterness in Jason's tone was unmistakable, as well as in the contempt in his eyes. Usually, Jason and Percy were pretty good friends, but right then, it was like Nico had run his sword down the middle of it. Percy got the feeling Jason and he were technically on the same side where the reclusive demigod was concerned, but they were looking at it differently.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Percy demanded, coming to his feet.

Jason rose too. "It means the kid hasn't had the best life, and you're busy lapping up the happiness with Annabeth to notice."

"You don't know anything, you sack of - " Percy stopped when he realized something horrifying. Jason was right. Nico had never freely hung out with people, he had never properly initiated a conversation with Percy. The few times Percy spared him enough mind to confront him in the shadows where he lurked, Nico tensed up, almost like he was expecting a fight. His comments were short and purposeful if he wasn't talking about something like monsters and the dead of his father's realm, and even then he never spoke _to _Percy. More to the world, and Percy happened to hear.

He'd always attributed it to a residual hatred for him because of his failure to keep his promise to protect Bianca. For the first time, it occurred to him there might more to it.

"Gods," he breathed, sitting again and running his hands through his hair. "I'm a shit person."

"You just realized this?" Jason taunted, but Percy took it without hesitation. Suddenly, the words of Acheron and the _arai. _The curses flung upon him by a million crossed souls. The neglected people he had saved and then forgotten. The ones he hadn't even saved first. He remembered how terribly he'd treated Bob, and yet the Titan gave his life protecting him. He remembered how it was only Nico's insistence that Percy was a friend that saved him and Annabeth with Bob's memory came back - his days as Iapetus, a Titan.

Percy slumped into himself and suppressed tears. "I _suck,_" he said with absolute certainty. "I am the worst person alive. Some hero I am."

Jason said nothing.

Percy clenched his fingers in his hair and breathed sharply, fighting the tears. He could self-disgust build up inside of him, worse than when him and Annabeth stood over the River Acheron. How many people had he wronged? How many had he left behind, to suffer while he lived the life of falsehood? A hero? No. Percy Jackson was a wolf in a sheep's skin. A monster among saints.

"Percy . . . ?" Jason's voice sounded fearful. Percy peeked between his fingers to see Jason reaching toward him with a pacifying hand. In a voice more inhuman than he understood, he snarled. Jason staggered back like he'd been struck. "Oh gods, your face . . ."

And then Jason fled the room.

There was cries of alarm outside the room, one distinctively sounding like Annabeth's. "I know what he went through!" she was protesting. "I can help him!"

"No!" Jason snapped. "I think he has to talk to Nico."

"And why in Hades would - ?"

"Trust me."

The conversation faded. Percy ignored it, trying to calm the nerves that were now frayed worse than the Argo II's circuits after going hit with a stray bolt of lightning. The taunts of Tartarus were loud in his mind, louder than his own pacifying thoughts. He wanted to implode from the guilt, even though he knew that was pointless.

"You're right," a voice said angrily from in front of him. "You are a sack of shit. But you're a heroic sack of shit who needs to stop feeling bad because of a couple hiccups."

Percy's eyes snapped up, watery as they were, to meet Nico di Angelo's brooding glare. He had his Stygian iron sword laying across his lap, a stilled stone resting on the metal. He perched on a stone a half mile from what looked like a camp. Instantly, he felt ashamed. "Nico, man, I don't know how to - "

"I told you you didn't have to thank me," Nico reminded him. "You don't have to apologize either. You fought a Titan Lord thinking you were destined to die to save the world. How was I supposed to expect you to pay attention to me when you had the girl of your dreams willing to live the life with you?"

There was an underlying hint of resentment in his voice that Percy, for once, didn't miss. "That doesn't make it right," he insisted, sitting forward. "I blew off Bob, and he almost let me die. If you hadn't given a chance, both Annabeth and I wouldn't have made it to the Doors. I pretty much forgot Calypso existed after I got off her island. Everybody else, including you?" Percy shook his head. "I'm a shit person," he repeated.

There was an awkward silence, one Percy didn't know how to break. But then, suddenly, Nico spoke. "Jason said you asked what happened when I went to get the scepter with him." It wasn't a question.

Percy was shocked. Was Nico offering information rather than being coaxed free of it? "Yeah," he said uncertainly, not sure how to field this.

"Cupid took Diocletian's scepter after his coffin was stolen. We had to go through him to get it."

"What?" Percy's mind immediately filled with the image of a cute cherub and boxes of chocolates, but the pale look on Nico's face - paler than normal - told a different story. "What happened?"

Nico chewed his lower lip for a minute like he was wrestling with a decision. Finally, he sighed and said, "He said I had to tell the truth if I wanted the scepter. That love demanded nothing less." His voice was wrought with pain and bitterness and hopelessness, like he was reliving the single worst moment of his life over.

Percy finally understood why Jason hadn't wanted to tell him. Cupid made Nico confess a crush . . . and for a brooding son of Hades who scared anyone who tried to make friends, that much have been horrifying.

Percy whistled, low and long. "Yikes," he said sympathetically. "Something tells me yours was worse, but if it makes you feel any better, I found out I was in love with Annabeth from Aphrodite when she held me captive in her limousine. Said she'd keep my love life interesting."

For some reason, Nico winced like he'd been hurt. He covered it up a second later, but today Percy was paying close attention. He caught the flinch. And then, all at once, understanding dawned on him. "Shit," he breathed. "No wonder you listened to her when you looked like you wanted to kill me. How long have you" - Percy had to grit the last out and struggle not to sound jealous or angry - "had a crush on Annabeth?"

Instead of turning shy or red or something typical like that, Nico got angry. "Why does _everyone _assume I've got a crush on Annabeth?" he demanded. "Dear gods, you two are so freaking inseparable that's it impossible to be gay for you and _not _be assumed straight for Annabeth."

For a very long, unsettling moment, Nico and Percy started at each other. Percy's head snapped up from where he hid it in his hands and he gulped, holding his younger cousin's gaze for one second, two. Three. And then, looking paler than the ghosts he summoned, Nico slashed the Iris-Message.

The dispersal of mist was a perfect analogy for Percy's friendship with Nico di Angelo.

* * *

Apparently, Nico had succeeded in returning the statue to Camp Half-Blood and fending off the armies of Gaea while the Seven thwarted her and her army in Athens. But by the time they returned home to the celebrations and festivities joining Greek and Roman customs in a colorful assortment of decorations and activities, he was long gone.

Reyna filled him in as she drank deeply from a suspicious flask. Her eyes were clouded over with drunkenness, but Percy didn't judge; despite her trials, she had still been stripped of her rank of praetor and all she had to show for it was a temporary alliance at best. Her pegasus was dead, her crush was spending the rest of his days at Camp Half-Blood with Piper, and she was alone. Percy had had a series of revelations while battling Gaea those last few days, and Reyna's incomprehensible strength and suffering was one of them. He wanted to comfort her, but he doubted she'd remember it in the morning.

"He acted strange throughout the quest," she slurred, surprisingly coherent despite her inebriation. "He promised to leave forever after the war was won, and he did." Then Reyna burped, and Percy _really _didn't know how to field that.

He was miserable for days. How had he missed Nico's . . . What was he even supposed to call it? Gayness? Something about that just seemed wrong. Nico was like his little brother, even if the fact that he had a crush on Percy was a bit weird. Okay, a lot weird. But, surprisingly, not for the reason Percy might have expected.

Finding out Nico liked him as more than a friend hit him the same way it had for Calypso, Rachel, and Annabeth. Unexpected, confusing and awkward. And none of _them _had understood Percy's lack of understanding when they confessed their affections. From where he stood, Percy was the single-most callous, underthought, clumsy, irresponsible and unlovable individual alive, and yet that was . . . four crushes on him?

Why?

Seeming Nico wasn't about to talk to him, Percy decided the three girls were the second-best. But Annabeth was out of the question because he was _not _going to jeopardize his relationship with that kind of a weird question. He hadn't had a sort of awkward or romantic moment with Rachel since that _one _time on the beach when she kissed him. And Calypso was nowhere to be found, even if he had asked Hermes how she was doing after the gods gathered in the Misted ruins of Olympus to speak with the Seven.

Then something unexpected happened.

Percy was drafted to gather up the Seven for a belated victory feast. Apparently, they'd have it first at Camp Half-Blood, then hitch a ride with some more Romans and Greeks back to Camp Jupiter for a triumph. Percy seriously wanted to see if the triumph lived up to its reputation.

He knocked on Cabin Nine. Nyssa told him Leo had hung back while the others went through the activities, and he'd seemed tired, so she'd let him. Percy figured the promise of a good party would wake him up.

But then he heard cursing from inside. The sounds of whirring mechanics reached his ears, unmistakable as it was Hephaestus' cabin. Percy should have known Leo would skip breakfast to mess with his newest invention. Irritated, he flung the door open and found Leo with his legs crossed on his bed, holding a bronze astrolabe in his lap and fitting in pieces of metal like a puzzle. He kept cursed and turning the navigation device, a wild look in his eyes.

"C'mon, you stupid . . ." Leo took a crystal from his pocket and tried to insert it in the middle. but it wouldn't go. "Damn it! How in Hades did Odysseus do this?" He threw the astrolabe on the bed and fumed at it.

"Uh . . ." Percy trailed off from the doorway. Leo looked up in alarm, reaching for his bedside hammer with a feral look in his eyes. When he realized it was Percy, he relaxed. "You going somewhere?"

Leo looked hesitant to answer, but eventually he sighed. "Apparently not." He threw his legs over the bed, stretching like like they were tingly. "I'd hoped I could . . ." He shook his head. "But apparently, Olympus sucks balls and doesn't like either of us." He stood up and stretched.

"Either of you and who else?" Percy prompted, walking toward Leo. The guy was so easy to approach, the warning look he shot Percy came completely unawares. Percy stopped cold.

"Doesn't really matter to you anymore, now does it?" Leo's voice was as bitter as Nico's. It struck a familiar chord in Percy's heart. "It used to, but you forgot about her. I'm surprised she doesn't hate you, after what you did." Leo tried to shoulder past him, deliberately bumping into him, but Percy caught him and steadied him. Leo looked angry enough to punch him in the face.

"What are you talking about? Why is everyone angry at me and expecting me to magically understand?"

"Because it isn't 'magically understanding!'" Leo's voice went up and octave as he shoved Percy into the bed. "You're just too stupid to get it. You're this great and noble hero who has short-term memory loss. Hera really fucked you up mentally, but you were an idiot before that. You changed a lot of lives, and then you forgot about them. You hurt people, Percy. A lot of people. Good people who deserved way better than what you gave her - them."

Percy caught the slip, though. "This is about a girl?" Suddenly, it dawned on him. He was doing that a lot, nowadays. "What? Your girlfriend is mad at me? What did I do?"

This time, Leo didn't just _look _ready to punch Percy. He actually did. And broke his nose too.

Blood spurted from his nostrils and Percy hastened to cover it. Within seconds, his face was slick with the red stuff, and pain radiated by his busted nose. When he looked at Leo with an attempt at horror at reproach, he didn't even see a shred of pity in the son of Hephaestus' brown eyes. He looked completely at peace with what he had done.

"What the Hades?" Percy demanded, his voice weird because he couldn't breathe right. His mouth tasted violently of copper. "What was that for?"

"Why does she have to be my girlfriend for me to care about her?" Leo snapped. "She's had a tough life, and I want to help her out. Besides, _Leo's and Calypso's Auto Garage and Mechanical Monsters _will be a hit in Texas."

And Percy saw the light.

He fell back against the bed, bewildered. "You - " He sounded really weird. "You were on Ogygia?"

Leo sat down too, still unapologetic. "Yeah. I think Khione planned to kill me in an ocean no one could find, but I helicoptered my way to Calypso's dining table." A wistful look spread across his face. "I totally trashed it."

Percy winced. If there was one thing in the world that could set that nymph off, it was her dining table. "How badly did she kill you? She almost shoved honeysuckle down my throat because I put my elbows on the table."

Leo laughed. "She tried to get rid of me the second I showed up. Wouldn't even tell me who she was for, like, an hour. After that, she forbid me from staying in her little island paradise. She thought that the island's magic had been closed off and I was a fluke, so we were both stuck there, and she didn't want to deal with me."

And then Leo shot into it. About how he immersed himself in his work to forget about the home he couldn't go back to. How Calypso made him fire-resistant clothes because he always burned through the normal ones. How Gaea's threats only galvanized her into a frenzied action, helping Leo build and make his way home. How the raft washed up on shore, and as a parting gesture, Calypso kissed him.

"She still hates me," he finished, "but I think I'm sort of in love with her. And I swore on the Styx to get back when I could."

Percy balked. "What? Leo, you know that no one can ever go to Ogygia twice?"

Leo shot him a dirty look. "I've heard the spiel before. You don't have to remind me. And that's why I have this." He held up the astrolabe. "I didn't know what it was when I took it from the dwarfs, but I realized Odysseus was trying to get back to Calypso when he made it. He needed a crystal." Leo handed Percy a clear stone and placed it gently in the palm of his hand.

And finally, it all made sense.

"Can I help you?" Percy asked uncertainly. "Calypso cursed me after I left, and I want to apologize. If you don't . . ."

Leo beamed and clapped him on the back. "Dude, she's still head over heels for you. She'll be thrilled you decided to come along." Leo's smile was bittersweet, and his words didn't encourage Percy.

It just reminded him of how horribly he let down Nico.

* * *

"Ah-ha!" Leo shouted five days later, having emerged from a four-day exile. Percy dragged him, kicking and screaming, from his cabin the day he'd confessed being marooned on Ogygia, but after that, he'd worked nonstop. Percy had pitched in instead of his preassigned activities, but Leo hardly slept or ate. He was determined to get back to Calypso, so much that Percy saw a bit of himself in the mechanic.

If Annabeth had been trapped on an island with no way of seeing him again, Percy would have been just as driven. It hurt to realize Calypso still held a flame for him, and his feelings were only for another girl, but he couldn't change that. So he worked hard to make up for what he could.

Leo bounded toward him in the middle of the Arena on the one time Percy had taken for himself. Leo commanded it, saying Percy would only get in the way on the last leg of the repairs. Seeming he had sword-fighting at that point, Percy was all too happy to agree.

Leo's face was brighter than it had been . . . in the whole time Percy had known him. Which was shocking, because Leo was a regularly bright person. When Hazel interceded his race, he leaped into the air, exclaimed in joy, "I finished it!" and kissed her on both cheeks, Italian-style. It was so energetically platonic that Percy had to snort and Hazel's stricken expression as Leo spun her around and headed for Percy again.

By that time, they'd gathered quite the crowd. Campers - Greek and Roman - were straining their necks to find out what Leo was so excited about.

Percy was curious, too.

Leo gave him an exploding fist bump as he skidded to a stop. "We did it," he panted, face broken in a smile Percy was sure he'd never wipe off his face. "It's finished and working and glowing bright enough to make Apollo jealous. It damn near flew out of my hands when I took it by the water."

"It?" Hazel asked as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd. "What's it?"

Leo didn't seem particularly inclined to answer her, so Percy did. "An astrolabe. I made the gods promise to let Calypso go, and they still haven't done it. So we're going to - "

"Spring her!" Leo screamed like a kid on Christmas morning after staying up all night waiting for Santa. There were bags under his eyes and enervation in the stumbling he moved with. "We've got to hurry. Ogygia is weird. She might not remember me when we get there!" Leo laughed, and Percy realized he was drunk off of exhaustion.

When Leo collapsed into his arms, Percy had to stagger to hold him up. "Whoa there," he said. "I think she can wait another day for you to sleep. She'll be madder if you don't."

Leo mumbled happily into Percy's shirt sleeve. "Sleep? Nah. I got to spring my princess from her tow - " He yawned massively and fainted into Percy's arms.

* * *

Leo was pissed when he woke up the next morning, but Percy had already tied up his loose ends and Leo hadn't had any for five days. They were ready to go.

As they bobbed along the waves on a raft identical to the one Percy had sailed home on when he was fourteen, just big enough for two, Percy wondered what Calypso would say when she saw him. Would she laugh and hug him? Or curse him for leaving her? His mind warred with itself as the sun dimmed and Leo ordered him to sleep. Percy only laid awake though, staring at the stars.

"Bob says hello," he said again, remembering his Titan friend and his courageous sacrifice at The Doors of Olympus. Maybe it was Percy's imagination, but he could have sworn he saw the stars wink in response. Especially the Huntress, the immortal soul of Zoe Nightshade, forever a member of the night sky her Lady was the patron of.

A lone tear slid down his cheek when he thought of the lives he'd cost, and he waited for Leo to fall asleep from boredom. Then he took over and kept watch. Leo snored with a contented smile on his face.

The night turned to dusk as Percy watched the astrolabe. Absently, he wished he'd asked Leo what it would do once they found the island, but he doubted the little guy knew. Leo had been so intent on repairing it, he probably didn't think about how it worked.

Suddenly, the faint glow it had maintained brightened, and all of the sudden it started vibrating. A dense fog built up around the raft and Percy's heart quickened. He shook Leo awake with a terse command, and as Leo scrambled for a hammer, Percy drew Riptide. Not even the astrolabe's brightness and Riptide's shine could pierce the veil of mist.

And then it cleared, revealing a vibrant green island with a bunch of bright green trees and a welcoming beach beckoning. There was a blackened crater by the shoreline, no doubt Leo's fault. And standing with her feet in the lapping waves was the figure of a beautiful girl, dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans.

Percy knew it was Calypso from her face and hair, but the wardrobe change surprised him. He looked at Leo for confirmation, and knew by the elation on his face that they'd succeeded.

Leo almost jumped ship after her, but Percy restrained him and quickened the raft until it docked on the shore of Ogygia, right in front of a dumbfounded Calypso.

Her brown hair was restrained in a thick bun, bits of hair sticking out at odd angles. Her hands were dirty, like she'd just gotten out of the garden, and her face was streaked with earth. She held a laundry basket off to the side. Her jaw gaped open, but she didn't even look at Percy. She only had eyes for Leo.

"Leo?" she cried in disbelief. "You came back? This isn't a dream?"

Leo didn't miss a beat. "So now you're dreaming about me?"

Calypso laughed in a mixture of annoyance and joy as she embraced the son of Hephaestus. She gripped his army jacket with a smile. "You kept it?" she asked in disbelief.

Leo unzipped the jacket to show a white undershirt. "'Course I did. Couldn't forget the girl I drove insane, could I?"

Calypso pulled away and punched him in the arm. "You certainly did, Leo Valdez. I had a visit from your father, and it was the first time I've seen him angry. Apparently, I 'corrupted and twisted your impressionable thoughts and now you were hellbent on a hopeless mission with no happy ending?'" Her tone was more amused than angry, but Percy could tell with shocked understanding that this was their version of flirting.

Leo rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well . . . I sort of swore on the Styx I'd come back. But I did, so all's well."

"You _what?" _All of the sudden, Calypso wasn't playful anymore. She was serious and her eyes looked hurt. And still, she hadn't noticed me.

Leo grinned cheerfully. "Yeah. I mean, we can't - "

Calypso shoved him into the water with tears in her eyes. "You had no idea you'd succeed!" she wailed. "Chances were you'd fail. And you _still _did it?" She looked flabbergasted and hurt as she tripped away from Leo, who I had never seen more broken than in that moment. "You could have died! Because of me!"

And then she fled from the shore, abandoning her laundry in a heap and sprinting faster than humanly possible to the place Percy remembered her garden to reside. Leo didn't give Percy a passing glance as he took off after her, leaving the son of Poseidon confused, conflicted, and above all else, shocked.

Calypso was obviously over me, and that did the antithesis of hurt. It took a burden off of my shoulders that I hadn't known I'd had. But now, Leo was pursuing an immortal goddess with crossed eyes and his heart on his sleeve. I just hoped she wouldn't shoot him down.

I climbed off the raft, commanding it to stay, and shed my shoes. I fidgeted with the sand between my toes, waiting.

An interminable amount of time later, I heard a conversation from behind me. " . . . with us. You could see Texas."

"The shop." Calypso sounded like she was remembering something. "But, Leo, this island has been my life. I don't know if I _can _leave. Olympus might not let me."

"They will." Leo's voice was absent of any doubt. "After what I went through for them, they'll let me have this."

The accompanying footsteps stopped. "They'll let you have what?" Calypso's voice was guarded, like she was reluctant to get hurt.

I could feel Leo choose his words carefully. "You're one of the few people that dealt with me for me, right off the bat. I don't think a person like that should have to live out eternity suffering for a crime that wasn't really theirs."

"Ah." Calypso's voice held no enthusiasm.

"And, uh," Leo continued nervously. "That - right before I left? - That was sort of my first kiss. Ever." An anxious pause. "And it, er, _rocked my world,_ so to speak."

Percy bit back a snort at that last.

"Hmm," Calypso said, sounding intrigued. "Yes, well, you _were _fleeing my island, never to return. It was only just that I give you a parting gift." She sounded so playful, Percy was reminded of how he and Annabeth jested. But Calypso's teasing was a lot more different, more guarded and distrusting. Three millennia marooned on an island being visited by heroes you couldn't ever have would probably do that to a person.

The sounds of mechanical whirring could be heard as well and Percy banged his head against his knees. Leave it to Leo to fidget with machines when he was confessing his love to a nymph.

"Would it be rash to ask for another one?" How much courage it must have taken Leo to blurt that out, Percy would probably never know.

There was a significant pause in the conversation after that, and Percy put his shoes back on. He stood up just as Calypso and Leo walked up behind him, shit-eating grins on their faces with the backs of their hands brushing. Percy could only feel happy for Leo. And for Calypso.

"Hey," he greeted, and there actually wasn't any tension in his shoulders. He held out his hand, like two friends meeting after a while of being apart. Calypso stared at it for a moment before shaking it, slightly in shock. "It's nice to see you again. I'm sorry I didn't check up after the war. There really is no excuse." He had been practicing that apology for a week.

Calypso looked sad. "Is Annabeth alright?" He knew what she was asking; had her curse reached her?

Percy decided it best to avoid the whole truth. "Yeah," he said. "She's great. I gave her a promise ring during the war."

Leo sputtered. "What? Man, you didn't tell me that!"

Percy shrugged and released Calypso's hand. "Annabeth didn't want to say anything. And I was - am - sort of dealing with a bit of confusion in that department right now." Percy couldn't believe how calm he sounded. He turned back to Calypso. "Well, m'lady," he teased, suddenly feeling like he could act normal around her now that she was with Leo and didn't even kind of have a thing for him. He stepped aside and gestured at the raft. "It is time for your tour of Modern Earth. Where would you like to start?"

* * *

Calypso's immediate response was "New York," because that was where Camp Half-Blood was and she wanted to be in a place where nobody was going to dispute her existence or shove newfangled technology in her face. Percy warned her it would still be jarring, but she only nodded.

They ran into one hiccup along the way. Apparently, three people was too much for the small raft and it started to sink. After a few minutes of paralyzing panic while they floundered about in desperation, three new rafts appeared. They each climbed onto one, although Leo and Calypso kept steering theirs closer together, all but holding hands to stay near.

The days dragged on once more, and eventually Calypso drifted over to Percy's side. "I could tell you wanted to talk to me about something," she confessed. "What?"

Percy shifted on his raft and gripped the small mast nervously. "Uh . . . This is going to sound weird, but why did you like me? I mean, before you met Leo."

"I don't like Leo," she corrected, and Percy felt his heart sink for his friend. "Despite everything that's happened, I love him. And I loved you before because you were every bit the hero men were supposed to be." She wasn't bashful now, embarrassed to confess her feelings like she had been the first time. "You were brave and loyal, even when people weren't necessarily to you. And you were still innocent in spite of what you'd gone through. Your love for all your friends, not just Annabeth, transcended both heroes before you who I had fallen in love with. I would imagine it would be very difficult for people _not _to love you."

Percy blinked in shock. "Wow."

"I sense a problem beyond Ogygia. What is it?"

Percy wasn't sure if he could tell, but he was certain Calypso was trustworthy. As stars dotted the night sky, he told her about Nico. Calypso didn't bat an eye at his younger cousin's homosexuality. When he expressed a surprise about, considering her time of birth, Calypso only burst out laughing.

"Do you have any idea how many same sex lovers the Greeks took in stride?" She shook her head. "The gods weren't confined to heterosexual romance, Percy, and neither were the Titans. Love for another male - or another female - is the single least shocking thing I've heard in my life." She smiled slightly. "I cannot pretend to understand the stigmas of your world, but this Nico di Angelo should know that it is being _incapable _of love that makes one - what did you say they call it? Queer? Whether you like someone of another tribe or origin or bloodline or gender or not, love is love and that cannot be overshadowed by the meaningless specifics. It is sad that he should suffer this sort of heartbreak, but he should also know that, no matter how impossible it seems, you will always find your hero."

She cast a wistful look toward Leo's raft. He snored happily on the rickety wood, and Calypso smiled warmly at him.

And, with that in mind, they washed up on the shores of Camp Half-Blood.

* * *

Hazel helped Percy hunt Nico down, but he insisted on facing the son of Hades alone.

Nico sat cross-legged in front of an old grave. When Percy looked at the headstones, he realized these deceased had died in the '40s. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the name on the gravestone Nico stared at emptily.

_Maria di Angelo_

_1906-1937_

_A mother in spirit, behavior, and action. May her missing children be carried safely to heaven and away from the growing horror of our world. _

Something told Percy the inscription had been Hades' doing.

He heard Nico's quiet sobbing and felt his heart go out to him. Tentatively, he placed a hand on Nico's shoulder. Nico surged to his feet and drew his Stygian iron sword, letting it seep the light from around them.

Percy panicked a little. "Whoa, there," he placated frantically, leaning away from the soul-sucking blade. "I just want to talk."

"Well, I don't." Nico sheathed his sword and stormed off toward the shadow of a tree. Percy caught him before he could shadow travel away. "What?"

"We need to talk."

"No. You want to feel better about yourself, and I need to leave."

"Nico, please. I don't care about the whole crushing-on-me thing, but you're my cousin and I've been treating you like crap. Now, please, let me apologize."

Apparently, that hadn't been the thing to say. Nico bristled like he's been struck across the cheek and spun on his heel. Percy jumped in front of him and placed his hands on his chest. Nico's cheeks tinged red. "Don't touch me," he warned quietly.

"Sorry," Percy said sincerely, taking his hands back. "But for once, we have to talk like friends instead of temporary partners. I don't like seeing you suffering, and - "

"Yeah, well, my suffering is kind of a moot point. You can't do anything about it, so . . ."

"Being gay doesn't make you weird," Percy blurted. Nico stopped walking. "I mean, a lot of people think you can't _be _in love, and I want to punch them all. Just because you're attracted to other guys . . . it's not like that makes you a monster or something. A lot of people care about you. Do you really think Hazel is going to stop loving you just because you'll probably wind up marrying a dude one day?"

Nico didn't meet his eyes. "You didn't live in the '40s. Back then - "

"I know. But, Nico, they were wound tight about everything. Civil rights, religious sectors; seriously, gays were probably happier in the shadows. But now, most people are pretty cool about it. And I swear, if anyone _isn't, _the rest of us will kill him." After a moment of hesitation, he added, "Especially Jason. Seriously, that guy wants to bite my head off just because you had a crush on me and it hurt you. I'm a little afraid to spar with him now."

Nico's eyes snapped up. "You - You just said . . ."

Percy nodded and tucked his hands in his pockets as a breeze blew past. He shivered against it. Frost gathered on the grass under his feet, partially melted in places. Nico was as frozen as the ice crystals in front of him. "Yeah," he said. "Look, the reason I was so shocked was because, well, I'm not used to people liking me. And, man, I'm gonna be honest; you were the _fourth _to say something. After I was with Annabeth. It came at me a little sideways, and I reacted really badly, but that doesn't mean I like you best. Like, if you start checking out my ass I might get nervous, but . . ."

Nico burst out with very sincere laughter, letting it roll off the gravestones. "You think I was checking out your ass? Percy, no offense, but you have the single _boniest _behind in the whole world. And I should know. I hang out with dead people."

"Okay," Percy said, retrieving his hands and crossing them over his chest while smiling. "Now I'm insulted."

And without warning, Nico scooped up a handful of snow and chucked it at his face. The ensuing snowfall fight patched up the remaining tatters of their friendship, and Nico returned to Camp Half-Blood the rest day to enthusiastic Winter Solstice celebrations.

He came out in front of the entire camp when he was sixteen, holding hands with his new boyfriend, Pollux. Percy was the best man at his wedding, and Nico, Jason, Leo, Frank, and Grover were all his, except they technically couldn't all take it. So he gave the official position to Jason, seeming he was the least busy who was serious about it, and the others understood as they stood up with Chiron as Percy agreed to be with Annabeth until the day he died - for real this time. Not some cheap Death Mist.

Leo and Calypso were the last pair to get married, mostly because Calypso had to struggle to wrap her mind around the concept of a "joint union." "Don't you just pay my dowry?" she insisted when Leo was trying to get the marriage license. "You modern people are so convoluted."

Percy and Annabeth got a calico kitten they named Small Bob when they were twenty-two, three years before Annabeth found out she was pregnant. They named their first child Robert, but always called him Bob. Small Bob was irrevocably his, to such an extent that Percy and Annabeth were almost positive they were the reincarnations of their guardians and guides in Tartarus. When Annabeth discovered she had another youngster in the oven at twenty-eight, they were ecstatic to realize it was another boy. Without argument, he was named Damasen.

Jason and Piper only had one child, a daughter. They named her Jane, after Tristan McLean's assistant who had died saving Piper's life from a bunch of hellhounds the day she tried to retake the job. There wasn't any hesitation.

Leo and Calypso were pretty content without children until they were right up against thirty and Calypso scowled at the pregnancy test, shouting, "Leo, a pink cross means positive, right?" She had fraternal twins; Zoe and Olivia. Leo had never been more nervous than the day they joined him for the impatient pacing of the hospital hallway, waiting for the doctors to admit him back in.

"We should have had a home birth," he grumbled for the hundredth time as they shoved Scrubs on him and ordered him not to touch them. "Callie hates hospitals."

Hazel and Frank never had kids, which they never complained about. They were happy living at the small ranch with their brood of horses, away from both Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood. They were the only members of the Seven who had chosen a mortal retirement, and after being cursed, Percy figured they deserved it.

Nico and Pollux were inseparable from the day they started dating. Prior to the son of Dionysus, Nico was still a ghost at Camp Half-Blood, half there, half gone. But when they started seeing each other, Nico's excursions tapered off until he was all but domesticated, happy to spend time with his boyfriend instead of moping about the world grumpily. He never questioned his sexuality again. Eventually, they adopted a little girl that, surprisingly, they named her Gladiolas. Apparently, Nico really had let his sister's memory go.

Apparently, as Nico confessed during drinks one night with the guys, he'd decided on it out of gratitude to Cupid for getting him to, however rudely, confront his individuality. The love god had promised to honor his daughter with the same treatment, however, and Nico had banished him from his house. When confronted with two angry demigods, an angrier one on the one, and a furious toddler, Cupid fled.

"Good riddance," Jason scoffed, throwing back a mouthful of whiskey.

A new generation of demigods came to Camp Half-Blood, and Percy and Annabeth were shocked to find that, even as their years ticking into the late-thirties and early forties, no further strife befell the Greek world.

That is until Nico di Angelo showed up on their doorstep supporting a familiar Middle-Eastern guy with a bent sword and the words, "We're coming out of retirement."


End file.
